The UFC on FUEL 7 co-main event draw was shuffled on Thursday after Dennis Siver withdrew from the card for undisclosed reasons. Dustin Poirier has accepted the call to replace him and face Cub Swanson in the featherweight fight, the UFC confirmed.
The highly regarded Poirier, just 23 years old, recently rebounded from his first UFC loss by defeating Jonathan Brookins by first-round submission with a D’arce choke. Poirier had been competing for the first time since losing a pivotal fight to Chan Sung Jung, and the victory made him 5-1 in the UFC.
He won’t wait long to attempt to continue his momentum, as UFC on FUEL 7 takes place on Feb. 16, just three months after the Brookins’ win. That leaves him just one month to prepare for Swanson.
Swanson is currently enjoying his best stretch since fighting under the Zuffa banner. A winner of three straight — all by way of knockout — Swanson (18-5) has vaulted himself into the division’s top 10. Siver, also a divisional top 10 talent, had been 2-0 since moving down to featherweight, but he’ll be forced to wait to ascend the ladder any further.
UFC on FUEL 7, which takes place at Wembley Arena in London, features an interim UFC bantamweight championship fight between Renan Barao and challenger Michael McDonald as its main event.